HomeNewsBriefCosta Rica Oil Theft Reaches Record High in 2019
BRIEF

Costa Rica Oil Theft Reaches Record High in 2019

COSTA RICA / 27 NOV 2019 BY CHARLOTTE DIERKES EN

Oil theft cases in Costa have hit record levels in 2019 and increased nearly six fold in the past three years -- evidence that the fuel theft racket has grown dramatically in the Central American country.

Figures from the Costa Rican Petroleum Refinery (Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo – RECOPE) show that more than 14 billion liters of gas has been stolen between October 2016 and July 2019, CRHoy reported.

In October, RECOPE officials said that 279 separate oil theft incidents had been reported in 2019, a jump from 200 cases all of last year. In 2017, 47 cases were tallied, and just three cases were reported in 2016.

Officials at RECOPE estimate losses at almost $13 million during this period.

SEE ALSO: Costa Rica News and Profile

The pipeline between the inland hub of Cartago and the Atlantic port of Limón has been regularly targeted, officials say. Authorities, however, have been unable to pinpoint the time of the attacks or the exact amount of gasoline being stolen. Other sites where thefts have occurred include La Garita, Barranca, Esparza and places along Route 27.

In September, Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency (Organismo de Investigación Judicial – OIJ) opened an investigation after a large hole was found in a pipeline in Moravia, just north of San José.

The oil theft gangs have also found more sophisticated ways to siphon off fuel. Whereas boreholes were once crudely made and the gasoline carried away by hand, authorities are now seeing gaping holes that allow for the gasoline to be pumped out with small high-pressure hoses up to 500 meters long. In June, two men were arrested in Cartago driving a truck packed with 16 tanks, each of which had been filled with 1,000 liters of gasoline stolen from RECOPE pipelines, according to CRHoy.

Costa Rica’s intelligence agency (Dirección de Inteligencia y Seguridad – DIS) found that experts needed to perform taps are paid up to 3 million colons (about $5,000).

InSight Crime Analysis

The rapid scaling up of fuel theft reveals how Costa Rica’s gangs have seized on the quick and relatively risk-free criminal economy as a way to finance their expanding operations.

This has triggered a response from RECOPE, which has spent over $850,000 on security upgrades between the past year and doubled the number of guards patrolling its pipelines.

So far, the police response has largely been ineffective, most often resulting in just the capture of young men who carry out the thefts.

SEE ALSO: Coverage of Oil Theft

And while oil theft has been increasing, it may not be high atop authorities' list of priorities. Costa Rica has seen a spike in violence, drug trafficking and human smuggling in 2019.

Other countries in the region have also seen crime groups exploit the lucrative oil theft trade. In January of 2019, the state-run oil firm in Mexico estimated that more than $7 billion worth of fuel had been stolen since 2016. In Honduras, some 50,000 liters of stolen fuel were seized during a February 2019 operation.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COLOMBIA / 2 FEB 2022

Venezuela’s oil industry is beginning to make a muted recovery and the country’s black markets are reacting fast, with domestic…

ELITES AND CRIME / 26 JUN 2023

Venezuela's oil production is on the up, but so too are thefts from pipelines and associated criminal activity.

COSTA RICA / 27 JUN 2022

Two months ago, Conti, one of the most-feared cybercrime operations in the world, unleashed a blitz of raids against websites…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…